Killer tides, feisty crocs, giant clams await the traveler in one of Australia’s great untamed regions, the Kimberley coast. Would you dare to visit?

Three days through our trip in one of the most remote parts of Australia, our catamaran drops anchor. I look around for Montgomery Reef, but it's not there. I check the marine chart. I check my GPS. This is definitely the right spot. So what gives?

“Where is it?” I ask aloud.

"Patience", advises Glen Burns, onboard guest lecturer and on of the few people who has been here before. "It'll come, mate. Just you wait."

And sure enough, it does. Before our eyes, a reef appears from the water, slowly at first, then in massive chunks. Sparkling in the sun and with water gushing off its back, Montgomery Reef - which measures 96km across - eventually rises four meters above sea level.

"Told you," says Glen. "It's the tides!"

We transfer to a Zodiac, an inflatable rubber boat with an outboard engine, run a gap in the coral and cruise the inner side of the reef until we find a safe place to land. Once on the reef, we jump over tide pools containing brain coral in striking hues of blue, green and purple, while deftly avoid yawning giant clams with undulating blue lips. A 25cm-wide crab attacks the end of my walking stick. In one of the larger pools, we see a spotted dorsal fin moving back and forth. Glen reaches down and yanks up a 50cm-long epaulette shark trapped in the coral by the rapidly falling tide. "Check this out," he says, fingering a » next